Sunday, January 26, 2014

Sorry, I couldn't think of anything else to name this piece. And it's true.

As you may know, one of the yeshivas I attended as a kid was extremely abusive. I posted something about it on Facebook a few weeks ago, and it's been an interesting experience. I've gotten a lot of love and support, a little bit of pushback, many thanks, and a lot of questions. Some of the questions were directed at the parents, and why they let the abuse go on, which is a valid issue to raise, but not the focus of my posts. My aim was to expose and raise awareness about Moshe Lazer Blum, Shimon (Simon) Goldbrenner, and his cronies in that yeshiva, as well as the issue of corporal punishment and abuse in the Ultra Orthodox community in general. I managed to do all that, but in the process I reconnected with old friends, helped solidify Blum and Goldbrenner's place in internet infamy, and blew off some long-simmering steam.

But alas, I've run out of unique anecdotes to regale you with. I could continue to post things like "They beat us", "They were awful", "They made our lives miserable", but it'll get old quickly, so these posts will have to suffice. Many people have asked me to publish pictures of the people involved, and I would love to, I just don't have any. If anyone has any pictures, videos, information, or remembers more of the names of the people who ran the place, I'd be more than happy to publicize them. From what I hear, Blum lives in Monsey, and is a divorce mediator, and Goldbrenner teaches. There were others whose names I'd love to publicize, but I don't recall them. Not all of the rebbes there were abusive, but a number of them were.

I've gotten mixed reports regarding the status of Chareidi schools nowadays, and my impression is that they're better than they were, but still have a long way to go.

In order that these posts and the discussions they initiated don't disappear into the black hole that is social media, I've posted a link to each of them here. Check them out.